Film at Lincoln Center Podcast

This week on the Film at Lincoln Center podcast, we’re featuring a programmer’s preview on our Kinuyo Tanaka Retrospective, and a Q&A from the 59th New York Film Festival with director Nadav Lapid on Ahed’s Knee,  moderated by NYFF Programmer Rachel Rosen. As an actress in over 250 films, Kinuyo Tanaka was one of the most celebrated and wildly popular artists of her time, regularly collaborating with consummate masters like Yasujirō Ozu, Kenji Mizoguchi, and Mikio Naruse. Between 1953 and 1962, Tanaka directed half a dozen films with a determined sense of freedom and touches of provocation, placing women at the forefront of her movies as mistresses, prostitutes, poets, heroines, and victims of social injustice. The Kinuyo Tanaka Retrospective, featuring brand new 4K restorations of her directorial work and 35mm screenings of her collaborations as an actor, takes place March 18 - 27! Listen to an introduction to the filmmaker from Assistant Programmer Tyler Wilson and rediscover the groundbreaking auteur at filmlinc.org/tanaka. Also opening this Friday, Ahed’s Knee is Israeli filmmaker Nadav Lapid’s shattering follow-up to his bat-out-of-hell Synonyms (NYFF57). A film of radical style and splenetic anger, Ahed’s Knee accompanies a celebrated but increasingly dissociated director to a small town in the desert region of Arava for a screening of his latest film. Already anguished by the news of his mother’s fatal illness (Lapid’s film was made soon after the death of his own mother, who had worked as his editor for many years), he grows frustrated with a speech-restricting form he is encouraged to sign by a local Ministry of Culture worker. The confrontation ultimately sends him into a spiral of rage aimed at what he perceives as the censorship, hypocrisy, and violence of the Israeli government. This boldly shot and conceived work, which won the Grand Jury Prize at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, feels as though it has welled up from the depths of its maker’s soul. Ahed’s Knee opens this Friday with filmmaker Q&As at the 6pm screenings on Friday and Saturday, and a special Film Comment Free Talk with Lapid at 8:30pm on Friday. Get showtimes and tickets at filmlinc.org/ahed.

This week on the Film at Lincoln Center podcast, we’re featuring a special talk between Juliette Binoche and Déborah Lukumuena from the 27th Rendez-Vous with French Cinema, moderated by FLC programmer Maddie Whittle. In a Rendez-Vous lineup that features an abundance of extraordinary performances from women, two names stand out: Juliette Binoche, a much-acclaimed icon of French and international cinema, anchoring new films from directors Claire Denis (Fire) and Emmanuel Carrère (Between Two Worlds); and Déborah Lukumuena, a singular talent and rising star who embodies the best of a new generation of young French actors, performing opposite Gérard Depardieu in Constance Meyer’s Robust. Their conversation explores the two women’s professional trajectories and creative influences, their philosophies and priorities in selecting new projects, and their respective relationships with the American film industry. Rendez-Vous with French Cinema continues to play in our theaters through March 13th. Explore the lineup and get tickets to the best contemporary French films at filmlinc.org/rdv22.

This week on the Film at Lincoln Center podcast, we’re featuring a programmers preview of the 27th Rendez-Vous with French Cinema, the celebrated annual festival that exemplifies the variety and vitality of contemporary French filmmaking, co-presented with UniFrance and taking place now through March 13. Join programmers Florence Almozini, Maddie Whittle, and Adeline Monzier in a preview of this year's impressive lineup where they discuss their favorite films, hidden gems, and more. Get tickets, explore the full lineup, filmmaker Q&As, and free live talks at filmlinc.org/rdv22.

This week on the Film at Lincoln Center podcast, we’re featuring a programmers preview of the seventh edition of Neighboring Scenes, the annual wide-ranging showcase of contemporary Latin American cinema featuring established auteurs as well as fresh talent from the international festival scene. The preview is led by Cinema Tropical programmers Carlos A. Gutiérrez and Cecilia Barrionuevo. Featuring premieres and filmmaker Q&As, Neighboring Scenes takes place from February 24 - 28. Go to filmlinc.org/NS2022 for showtimes and tickets. Following the preview is a special conversation from our To Sir, With Love free screening about the legacy of Sidney Poitier and the figure of the Black movie star with scholars Racquel Gates and Michael Gillespie, moderated by filmmaker and critic Tayler Montague.

This week on the Film at Lincoln Center podcast, we’re featuring a programmer's preview of our Jonas Mekas Retrospective with FLC Jr. Programmer Dan Sullivan, followed by a Q&A from the 59th New York Film Festival with Flee director Jonas Poher Rasmussen, moderated by NYFF Director Eugene Hernandez. Few if any figures in the history of New York City film culture have left as large a mark as that of the Lithuanian filmmaker, critic, and poet Jonas Mekas. Rising to notoriety in the 1950s and ’60s as a champion of and mouthpiece for the New American Cinema, he founded and presided over such stalwart fixtures of the underground and avant-garde film scenes as Film Culture magazine, the Filmmakers’ Cinematheque, the Film-Makers’ Cooperative, and Anthology Film Archives. But he was also one of the 20th century’s most vital film artists, a master cine-diarist and something like a present-tense historian who documented the particulars of emigrant life in New York City. Featuring 16mm screenings, our Jonas Mekas Retrospective takes place from February 17th to 23rd.  In the Academy Award-nominated Flee, Amin’s life has been defined by escape from a young age. Forced to leave his home country of Afghanistan with his mother and siblings after the U.S.-supported mujahideen toppled the government, Amin relocated to Russia as an adolescent, only to take part in a dangerous migration to Western Europe as a teenager to break away from the harsh conditions of post-Soviet living. Now that Amin is planning to marry a man he met in his new homeland, Denmark, he begins to look back over his life, opening up about his past, his trauma, the truth about his family, and his acceptance of his own sexuality. Using animation as both an aesthetic choice and an ethical necessity (to hide Amin’s true identity), Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s animated documentary is an illuminating and heartrending true story about the importance of personal freedom in all its meanings. Flee, an NYFF59 selection is now streaming.

This week on the Film at Lincoln Center podcast, we’re featuring a Q&A from our sneak preview of The Worst Person in the World with director Joachim Trier and actors Anders Danielsen Lie and Renate Reinsve, moderated by FLC’s Director of Programming Dennis Lim. As proven in such exacting stories of lives on the edge as Reprise and Oslo, August 31, Norwegian director Joachim Trier is singularly adept at giving an invigorating modern twist to classically constructed character portraits. Trier catapults the viewer into the world of his most spellbinding protagonist yet: Julie, played by Cannes Best Actress winner Renate Reinsve, who’s the magnetic center of nearly every scene. After dropping out of pre-med, Julie must find new professional and romantic avenues as she navigates her late-twenties, juggling emotionally heavy relationships with two very different men (Trier regular Anders Danielsen Lie and engaging newcomer Herbert Nordrum). Fluidly told in 12 discrete chapters, Trier’s film elegantly depicts the precarity of identity and the mutability of happiness in our runaway contemporary world. Now nominated for Best International Feature Film and Best Original Screenplay at the Academy Awards, the NYFF59 selection is playing daily in our theaters. This Valentine’s Day, watch The Worst Person in the World with the best person in the world—buy one ticket, and get one 50% off. The discount will automatically be applied in the cart on filmlinc.org/worst.

This week on the Film at Lincoln Center podcast, we’re featuring a talk from Camera Man: Dana Stevens on Buster Keaton, a recent FLC event celebrating the new book from author and Slate film critic Dana Stevens, moderated by writer Imogen Sara Smith and FLC Programming Assistant Maddie Whittle. The conversation ranged from the two authors’ love of Buster Keaton, the evolution of the filmmaker’s filmography, the perception of masculinity in Charles Reisner’s Steamboat Bill, Jr., and the legacy of Keaton in Hollywood and beyond. Dana Stevens’s new book Camera Man: Buster Keaton, the Dawn of Cinema, and the Invention of the Twentieth Century and Imogen Sara Smith’s Buster Keaton: The Persistence of Comedy are both available for purchase.

This week on the Film at Lincoln Center podcast, we’re featuring a special talk from the 59th New York Film Festival with directors Maggie Gyllenhaal & Kira Kovalenko moderated by Maddie Whittle, NYFF Talks programmer, and translated by Sasha Korbut. Roiling currents of familial and feminist rebellion connect two extraordinary films in the NYFF59 lineup. In Spotlight selection The Lost Daughter, Maggie Gyllenhaal’s electrifying directorial debut, a reluctant mother is haunted by a crisis in her past, while in Main Slate highlight Unclenching the Fists, the searing sophomore feature from Russia’s Kira Kovalenko, a daughter strains against the domestic tyranny of her father. Featuring powerhouse performances and distinctive visual vocabularies, both films offer a layered yet urgent examination of the societal and patriarchal expectations that constrain their independent-minded protagonists. This special conversation brought the two directors together to discuss their respective forays into filmmaking, the process of realizing their vividly drawn yet enigmatic heroines, and the use of fiction to transcend an untenable status quo. NYFF Talks were presented by HBO.

This week on the Film at Lincoln Center podcast, we’re featuring a Q&A with Italian Studies director Adam Leon, moderated by David Fear, Senior Editor and critic at Rolling Stone. From award-winning filmmaker Adam Leon, Italian Studies is a lyrical film about dislocation, connection, and the elusive nature of identity. While visiting New York City from her native London, writer Alina Reynolds, played by Academy Award®-nominee Vanessa Kirby, inexplicably loses her memory and suddenly becomes unmoored and adrift on the streets of Manhattan with no sense of time or place — or even her own name. As Alina’s consciousness swings between imagined conversations, fragments of her own short stories and the bustling city around her, she finds an anchor in charismatic teenager Simon (Simon Brickner). Drawn to the lost woman, Simon soon introduces Alina to his free-spirited group of friends, and together they make their way through a disorienting cityscape full of life, beauty, and music. With an evocative score from Nicholas Britell, Italian Studies also stars Simon Brickner, Annika Wahlsten, Annabel Hoffman, Maya Hawke and Fred Hechinger. Italian Studies is now playing in theaters. This talk was first available to FLC patrons and members, who play such a vital role in all we do. If you're interested in supporting FLC by becoming a member and exploring member benefits, visit filmlinc.org/members.

This week on the Film at Lincoln Center podcast, we’re featuring a Q&A from the 59th New York Film Festival with Belle director Mamoru Hosoda, moderated by NYFF Programmer Rachel Rosen, and translated by Mikey McNamara. In his densely beautiful, eye-popping animated spectacle, Academy Award–nominated director Mamoru Hosoda tells the exhilarating story of a shy teenager who becomes an online sensation as a princess of pop. Still grieving over a childhood tragedy, Suzu has a difficult time singing in public or talking to her crush at school, yet when she takes on the persona of her glittering, pink-haired avatar, Belle, in the parallel virtual universe known as the “U,” her insecurities magically disappear. As her star begins to rise, Belle/Suzu finds herself drawn to another “U” fan favorite—a scary but soulful monster whose “real” identity, like Belle’s, becomes a source of fascination for legions. Both a knowing riff on the Beauty and the Beast fairy tale and a moving commentary on the duality of contemporary living, Belle is a thrilling journey into the matrix and a deeply human coming-of-age story, packed with unforgettable images and dazzlingly styled characters. Belle is now playing in theaters.